What is splash damage?
Splash damage works as area of effect damage of guns. Note that not all guns have this, mostly just Torgue, Maliwan and rocket launchers. It can come in different forms and different damage types, which are listed below. These forms and types interact differently with skills, enemies and other mechanics of the game, all of which is explained in detail below as well. The guide also contains a list of all guns with splash damage and their damage values, types, forms and behaviours.
Splash damage can’t score critical hits on most enemies (exceptions are enemies with universal crit spots, such as Crystalisks). Splash that’s added to a projectile is also able to proc its own status effects independantly from the projectile itself. Additive gun damage bonuses boost all types of splash damage.
Splash Types
Damage Types
Grenade - The splash gets boosted by grenade damage
Gun - The splash gets boosted by Maya’s Reaper skill and Zer0’s Be Like Water skill
Launcher - The splash is not boosted by either grenade damage or Reaper/Be Like Water
Forms of Splash
Pure - The projectile only deals splash damage
Directly added - The projectile deals impact damage like any other gun and then procs additional splash damage on contact
Separately added - The additional splash is not tied to the projectile and mostly behaves like pure splash
Note:
Weapons with Launcher splash that aren’t a rocket launcher (for example the Carnage) will not get boosted by launcher damage. Launcher damage works like any other weapon specific damage type (for example SMG damage) and only boosts rocket launchers, but always boosts them no matter what splash type they have.
Damage Equation
Grenade, Reaper and Be Like Water damage are multiplicative to gun damage (including Amp damage). Immolate is also multiplicative but has it’s own complicated damage calculation. All other multiplicative damage boosts are multiplicative to everything else.
Splash Damage = Base Splash Damage * (1 + Gun Damage %) * (1 + Grenade/Reaper/Be Like Water Damage %) + Immolate Damage
Self-Damage
Pure splash damage and seperately added splash will deal self-damage to you, with some exceptions. The secondary, large radius splash of non-Bandit E-Tech launchers, the Sawbar’s splash, the Grog Nozzle’s secondary mid-air splash and the Teeth of Terramorphous secondary explosion splash all don’t deal self-damage.
Be Like Water
BLW is the same damage type as Reaper, meaning it only boosts Gun splash damage. However the listed gun damage percentage (at 5/5 it’s +20%) is not accurate. The actual damage bonus is only half of that (so at 5/5 it’s +10%). The melee damage bonus is also only procced by Gun splash (and the impact damage itself of course). Also BLW only boosts the very first boostable damage instance that occurs, which will then proc the melee part of the skill that cancels the gun part. So for example shooting a Maliwan sniper directly at an enemy will result in only the impact damage being boosted because that procs the melee damage as soon as it hits the enemy. If the enemy is slightly missed and only the splash is dealing damage then the splash will get boosted. This also means weapons like shotguns barely get any benefit from BLW as only a single pellet will get boosted.
Immolate
Immolate boosts Launcher and Gun splash damage. The DoTs of Immolate can’t be procced by splash damage.
The damage calculation of Immolate is very complex. More info about the skill can be found here (link WILL follow, even if it’s the last thing I do).
Blood Bath and Blood Overdrive
Blood Bath is only procced by Launcher and Grenade splash damage. It is not procced by the impact damage of a weapon that has added splash. This means using a gun with a high amount of added splash results in a higher chance to proc BB on a kill. Or using a weapon with pure splash will guarantee that BB will be procced. The damage boost it provides is regular additive gun damage that can boost all splash types.
Blood Overdrive is procced by Gun splash damage and the impact damage of any weapon.
Get Some, Interspersed Outburst, Death From Above, Rising Sh0t, Cloud Kill and Make it Sparkle
Similar to Be Like Water, Get Some is only procced by Gun splash damage.
IO, DFA, RS and CK however are all procced by both Gun and Launcher splash damage.
Since there is a small cooldown after getting a stack of Rising Sh0t before you can get another stack, hitting an enemy directly with a gun that has added Gun splash damage will not yield two stacks at once.
Make it Sparkle is procced by Gun and Launcher splash, however splash directly added to the projectile does not proc it. Tediore launcher reloads and Tediore shotgun reload grenades also don’t proc it.
0ne Sh0t 0ne Kill, Decepti0n and All I Need is One 0/D/A
Zer0’s 0S0K boosts the damage of the first shot in the magazine, Zer0’s Decepti0n boosts the damage of a gun shot during the action skill and Sal’s AINiO boosts the damage of a shot after swapping weapons. Innvervate works the same as Decepti0n but is just a flat +10% bonus on top of it. If the weapon deals pure splash damage the splash gets boosted by 0/D/A. The reason why added splash doesn’t get boosted is because the splash damage “spawns” once the projectile hits something, not at the moment you shoot the weapon. However if the weapon deals pure splash and has added splash on top of that the added splash will still get boosted (for example the KerBlaster or a Maliwan launcher). If your weapon was to consume no ammo 0S0K would always boost the splash (as long as your mag stays full). Note that even though you won’t consume ammo with Sal’s Inconceivable the bonus from AINiO disappears (because it’s not magazine-based like 0S0K) as soon as you pull the trigger and the splash will still not get boosted. If you were to shoot a weapon in Decepti0n without deactivating it, the splash would also get boosted. This also explains why secondary projectiles like the Thunderball Fist’s orb get the bonus if you reload your weapon or swap your weapon and back before it explodes. 0/D/A provide regular additive gun damage.
For some detailed information on unlisted projectiles and these skills check out this document.
Money Shot and No Kill Like Overkill
Money Shot does not boost any splash damage at all. This means it doesn’t apply to any launcher, Torgue barrel AR, E-Tech pistol etc. and only applies to the impact damage of guns with added splash.
NKLO on the other hand does boost all splash types.
B0re, Close Enough, Chain Reaction and The Nth Degree
Pure splash can never proc B0re, Close Enough, Chain Reaction or The Nth Degree. Added splash damage on a projectile that works with B0re and Close Enough will not be boosted or reduced in damage by those skills. Added splash damage that procs on a hit will also always proc on every subsequent hit of a bullet that procced B0re, Chain Reaction or The Nth Degree.
Bullet Reflection
When a projectile with added splash damage that procs when it hits something hits an enemy with bullet reflection, the added splash still procs, dealing damage to the enemy and then the projectile bounces off (unless you have skills like B0re) but will proc the added splash again if it hits another enemy or a surface. If it hits the player then directly added splash will still not deal self-damage. Pure splash damage ignores most bullet reflection with some exceptions like Dukino’s Mom or Incinerator, where the projectile is literally reflected, dealing no damage whatsoever.
For some detailed information about various properties bullet reflecting enemies have check out this document.
The Bee Shield
Splash that’s added to a projectile gets the damage bonus of the Bee depending on how high the splash damage is in regard to the base damage (example below). Regular Amp shields would also apply to added splash if they were to always stay fully charged, or at least when the projectile hits the enemy (it works just like 0/D/A). Amp damage is split between listed projectile’s splash.
Example: A Torgue pistol has +100% splash, while a Maliwan pistol has +80% splash. The Torgue pistol will get 100% of the Amp damage added to the splash damage (so basically the pistol gets the Amp damage twice, once for the projectile and once for the splash). The Maliwan pistol however will only receive 80% of the Amp damage on the splash (so it gets 180% of the Amp damage in total).
Absorb Shields
Launcher or Gun splash damage that deals self-damage can be absorbed by Absorb shields. Gun splash will always give you ammo of the type of weapon you’re shooting yourself with while Launcher splash will always give you rocket launcher ammo.
Guns With Splash Damage
If there is a “+x%” next to the weapon it deals its base damage as impact damage plus that amount of damage as its splash. If it says “Pure” next to it the weapon deals all of its base damage as pure splash damage and if the listed base damage is incorrect, there’s a percentage value in brackets next to it. Weapons that have added splash that’s separated from the projectile are marked with S. All other added splash values are directly added to the projectile.
Note:
The splash of secondary projectiles is only listed once (example: The Storm has 5 orbs but each only deals 10% splash).
Assault Rifles
Torgue Assault Rifle = +90%
Torgue Barreled Assault Rifle = Pure
Seeker = Pure
Stinkpot = Pure
Hail = +80% and +80% (split projectile)
Boom Puppy = Pure
KerBlaster = Pure and +100% S (child grenade)
Peak Opener = Pure (300%) and +100% S (child grenades)
Sawbar = +100% S
Evil Smasher = +90%
Bearcat = Pure
Ogre = +90%
Pistols
Maliwan Pistol = +80%
Torgue Pistol = +100%
Dart/Spiker = Pure
Teapot = +80%
Flynt’s Tinderbox = +100%
Thunderball Fists = +100% and +150% S (orb)
Hornet = +80%
Hector’s Paradise = +80%
Infection = +80%
Dahlminator = Pure
Unkempt Harold = +100% and +70% (unlisted projectiles, which have an impact damage of 70% of the listed damage)
Pocket Rocket = +100%
Little Evie = +80%
Devastator = +100%
Grog Nozzle = +80% and +50% S (explodes multiple times while the projectile is traveling) and +80% S (final explosion, causes the projectile to despawn)
Wanderlust = Pure
Rubi = +80%
Logan’s Gun = Pure (75%) (impact splash, deals less than listed damage and also has penetration) and +75% S (extra explosions, the first one happens instantly but it doesn’t proc on penetration) and +150% S (final explosion)
Shotguns
Torgue Shotgun = +85%
Hyperion Splatgun = Pure and +50% S (bounce explosion)
Tediore/Bandit Splatgun = Pure
Teeth of Terramorphous = +50% and +180% S (explosion that occurs when the projectiles travel far enough without hitting anything and despawn)
Carnage = Pure
Twister = +40% (has penetration, splash procs again on subsequent hits)
Blockhead = +100%
Landscaper = +85% and +150% S (mines, deal more than listed damage but when a mine is placed the impact damage is lost)
Flakker = +100% and +120% (some of the explosions seem to deal more damage)
Omen = +100%
Swordsplosion = +100% and +70% S (child swords)
Unicornsplosion = +150% and +70% S (child crystals)
Slow Hand = Pure
Retcher = Pure
SMGs
Chulainn = +50%
Yellow Jacket = +70%
Hellfire = +50%
Nirvana = +50%
Florentine = +50%
Plasma Caster = +50%
Bandit Plasma Caster = Pure (projectile seems to “teleport” short distances, which means it despawns and spawns a new projectile, which can sometimes lead to 1 projectile hitting an enemy while another projectile is spawning)
Sniper Rifles
Maliwan Sniper = +50%
Cobra = +80%
Pimpernel = +50% and +50% (split projectiles)
Volcano = +80%
Storm = +10% (orbs, each has 3 damage ticks)
Rocket Launchers
Maliwan Launcher = Pure (75%) (impact splash, deals less than listed damage) and +25% S (extra nova splash, both together equal the base damage)
Pyrophobia = Pure (75%) and +20% S (apparently it only deals 95% of the damage that’s listed unless multiple novas hit)
E-Tech Launcher = Pure and +40% S
Bandit E-Tech Launcher = Pure and +60% S (extra orbs)
Norfleet = Pure and +50% S
Tunguska = Pure (10%) (contact splash) and +100% S (orb)
Mongol = Pure and +60% S (child rockets)
Hive = Pure (10%) and +40% S (homing projectiles, again deals less than listed unless multiple secondary projectiles hit)
Creamer = Pure and +80% S (split rockets)
All Other Launchers = Pure
Damage Swap Glitch
Some unique instances of splash can be damage swapped, meaning that if you swap your weapon after shooting it the damage of the splash that occurs from the projectile that was shot will be calculated by the base damage of the weapon you swapped to.
The guns with this property are:
Flakker - It seems that not just the Flakker’s splash but all damage it deals can be damage swapped.
Teeth of Terramorphous - Only the splash that occurs when the projectiles despawn without hitting anything can be damage swapped, while the added splash can’t.
Grog Nozzle - Only the splash that occurs multiple times while the projectile is traveling can be damage swapped, while the added splash can’t.
Sawbar - The splash can only be damage swapped if the split projectiles don’t hit anything and despawn. If they hit something the splash still spawns but it can no longer be damage swapped.
Pimpernel - Not just the splash of the split projectiles can be damage swapped, but the projectiles themselves can be too. They also adopt the element and the projectile speed of the weapon that was swapped too.
All of this information was tested by myself, but it’s possible that some of this information is still incorrect or incomplete. If you find something, let me know.
Video Version of the Guide
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